(IN): Christmas film for animal lovers

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Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071219/jsp/nation/story_8683896.jsp

 

Christmas film for animal lovers

- Documentary on elephant calf kalinga

OUR CORRESPONDENT

 

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 18: This Christmas, the Orissa forest department has

a bitter-sweet offering for the state's people.

 

A documentary on Kalinga, the calf who died recently after being taken

care of by forest personnel for 40-odd days, is ready to be launched

on the last week of December, a time that also coincides with the

silver jubilee celebrations of Chandaka sanctuary.

 

The eight-month-old calf was abandoned by her herd after she fell into

a ditch near Kalinga Studio on May 5 and was rescued by forest

officers. Mahout Chilu Nayak, looked after Kalinga for over a month.

" We have preserved clips of the time when she was rescued and her

games with forest personnel and her mahout in the sanctuary, " said

divisional forest officer-in-charge of the sanctuary Akshay Patnaik.

 

Forest officers had kept Kalinga on the edge of sanctuary hoping she

would be taken back. While their wishes did come true and Kalinga

joined her herd, 10 days later her body was found in Bharatpur forest,

on the city outskirts. It was concluded that Kalinga died after

failing to cope with the harsh weather.

 

The stay of the calf was a rare occurrence and the media and

environmental enthusiasts recorded her stay. " Once we decided to make

a documentary, we contacted all those who had the footages. They were

collected and handed over to Animesh Singh, a wildlife enthusiast who

also has experience in documentation work. Animesh offered to work for

free. The only money we spent was on editing that comes to around Rs

5,000, " said Pattnaik.

 

Patnaik has penned the 15-minute script for the documentary. With the

dense Chandka forest as its backdrop, the film would be made in Oriya

and English. The film that took five months to complete is the

first-ever attempt made by the Orissa forest department. " The

documentary would help create awareness and will be aired on

television channels soon. "

 

It would also be shown in in adjoining areas of Chandaka. " Hopefully

villagers would learn about elephants and that may lessen the degree

of man-animal conflict, " he said.